


nothing but time to kill

by 420jihoon (acousticirwin)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Mild Gore, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Survival, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-28 21:54:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17190995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acousticirwin/pseuds/420jihoon
Summary: Surviving is easy. Surviving is what Wonwoo knows, it's all he'd ever had to do. Even before people came back to life, he hadn't bothered to give a damn and had instead chosen to simply go through life as it went by. Even the outbreak hadn't changed that mindset, now that surviving is what really matters.Living, though? Living is hard. Living is what had always scared Wonwoo, made him back off of opportunities that had arisen, shrinking in on himself and surviving in his little safe bubble that he's created for himself. Wonwoo doesn't think he's capable of living anymore.Kim Mingyu makes him want to change that.





	nothing but time to kill

Killing a human shouldn't be this easy, Wonwoo thinks to himself as he plunges the knife deeper into the Undead's torso. Then again, he muses, can the Undead even be considered as 'human' anymore? He looks up for a second, stares into the Undead's face, its eyes staring right back at him, and for a moment he wonders if the person is still alive in there, after all. If their mind is still alive, screaming at the top of their lungs only to be heard by nobody but themselves.  
He quickly dismisses that thought when the Undead claws at his leg and tries to rip it off. Closing his eyes, Wonwoo takes out his knife out of the Undead's body just to smash it back down again, this time hitting the heart. He can feel the Undead shaking underneath him as it takes in its last breaths, and a few moments later the torso underneath him stills.  
Opening his eyes again, Wonwoo stands up, dusting his clothes off. He cracks the knuckles of his fingers and then looks at the corpse once more. It's not a pretty sight.

Even before Wonwoo killed it, the Undead had been ugly. Its face, disfigured by the mushrooms sprouting from the side of their neck, is hardly recognisable as a face anymore. The infection has spread almost throughout the entire face, not having reached the left eye and ear just yet. Everything else is covered by the weird mushrooms the infection brings with it, with their abnormal hard shells and sickly green colour. Overall, the corpse looks like it's rapidly decaying.  
Letting his eyes stray downwards, Wonwoo looks at the ragged and torn clothing, coated by a thick layer of dirt and dust. Its left arm is almost bare, and Wonwoo can see where another Undead had bitten quite a big chunk out of the underarm. The bite mark is surrounded by more mushrooms, and upon taking a closer look at the wound, Wonwoo can even see little maggots crawling around it.  
Feeling his sparse breakfast come up once more, Wonwoo has to avert his eyes. Checking the corpse for loot, he discovers a flashlight and some regular 9mm bullets, but the gun belonging to those bullets is nowhere to be found. Cursing, Wonwoo stands up and rips the knife out of the body. A gun would have been useful. So, so incredibly useful.

Looking around, he takes in his surroundings. He's in an abandoned warehouse, somewhere in the outskirts of Seoul. A thick coat of dust is covering the floor and the few boxes of goods that are left inside. It's been a few months since the outbreak, and the last few weeks have brought colder weather with them. Winter is coming. Walking around, Wonwoo checks the boxes, but finds nothing but rotten fish in them. Disgusting.  
Frustrated, Wonwoo cleans his knife on a piece of cloth laying on the ground and sheathes it in the knife holder on his belt, as well as packing up the bullets and the flashlight into his backpack. He'd been hoping to at least get something out of taking a detour into this warehouse, maybe even some proper food or loot that's actually useful, unlike those rotten fish he found. Then again, what was he expecting? A full three meal course waiting just for him? Highly unlikely. He hasn't had a proper meal in a week, surviving off of fruits and the occasional bar of Snickers, whenever he allowed himself the luxury. He wants food. He _needs_ food.

Wonwoo leaves the warehouse and heads into the direction of his initial destination: Garden5 Mall, where he hopes to find at least _some_ sort of consumable food. At this point, he's not shameless enough to try fish food. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, or something. The sun is up high, shining like it wants to show its best side today, and Wonwoo can feel the sweat trickling down his neck and back. Still, he refuses to remove his leather jacket. He never knows when a surprise attack is coming, and he'd rather have an extra layer between his skin and the Undead's teeth, thank you very much.  
Letting his mind stray, Wonwoo thinks back on the Undead laying on the floor of the warehouse. He hasn't seen a wound quite like that before, with the maggots and all. He's dying to go back, take some samples and analyse everything in his lab, but that's what got him into this mess in the first place, so. He's just gonna have to stick to scrawling his thoughts into the small notebook he carries around, for the meanwhile.

The mall comes in sight, and Wonwoo quickly checks his surroundings before entering quietly through one of the broken glass windows. He'd have taken the front entrance, but that's usually where gangs of survivors wait for loners like him, and he's not really feeling up to getting robbed right now.  
It's eerily quiet in the mall, and Wonwoo takes out his knife before advancing further into the store he entered through the window. It's some kind of clothes store, and if things were how they used to be, Wonwoo would probably stop, take his time and find something fashionable, but that life has long passed. Now he just skims through the clothes, only looking for something that might be useful for survival. It's crazy how life can change so quickly, and it's even more crazy how quickly the human mind is able to adapt to these sudden changes.  
Shaking his head, Wonwoo bites back a smile. Even though everything else has changed, his mind is still the same. Obviously, some habits still stick around, like his need to analyse everything around him. It comes with the job, he supposes. Scientists are weird like that. He doesn't have a lab anymore, or any fancy equipment to research with, but at least this aspect of his old life has stayed. He's glad it has. Where would he even be right now if he hadn't watched out for himself all along, always being cautious and rethinking his decisions? He'd definitely be a god-damned Undead, creating havok wherever he'd go. Briefly, Wonwoo wonders once again if the Undead really cannot feel anything anymore, or if maybe the human mind does not die along with the body. He hopes he never has to find out.

Exiting the store, Wonwoo is met with the open hall of the mall he's in. Once surely an astounding sight, the artistic glass ceiling with the green plants raking up towards the sun just gives him a chill. Over the course of the past months, the plants have taken it up to themselves to grow wherever they please, and now there's a thin coat of green covering the glass, always towards the sun. Squinting, Wonwoo thinks he can even see a couple of areas where some larger stems have broken through the glass and have reached the outside, growing further and further.

Noticing how high the sun is already standing, Wonwoo quickly looks around the mall, trying to choose another store that's worth venturing into. He _really_ wants some food, and preferably, he wants it now. There's a Lotte Mart store not too far down the floor he's on right now, and he supposes it's worth a try. Maybe other survivors haven't managed to loot everything in there.  
Entering Lotte Mart, Wonwoo quickly realises that he definitely thought wrong. The entire store appears to be completely empty. Shelves are knocked over, the floor is littered with empty grocery bags and shopping carts, and if Wonwoo's correct, there's even an entire barricade in the back of the store. Walking towards the barricade, Wonwoo looks left and right through the shelves, hoping that maybe there's _something_ in one of them, but no, nothing. Of course, this had to have been expected, but a man can still hope.  
Wonwoo's at the barricade now, checking it out from top to bottom. It's made up of some turned-over shelves, a couple of chairs and a broken shopping cart that serves as a makeshift door. Still keeping his knife out, Wonwoo grips the cart and pulls hard, slightly damaging the barricade but not enough to make it fall down. Gripping his knife harder, he walks through the barricade, ducking under one of the shelves further up top. Behind, there's not much. It's the corner of the store, and obviously someone thought it would be a good idea to seek shelter in a completely obvious place. There's a pillow in the corner far back, and Wonwoo sees a thin blanket rolled up next to it. There isn't a lot of space behind the barricade, and turning around, Wonwoo finds that there's only a backpack hidden behind the inside wall, as well as a flashlight. That makes it the second one today, but he isn't about to go off complaining about it. Flashlights are always useful, especially with winter nearing.  
Wonwoo picks it up, turning it on to see if it might still work, and to his surprise it does, so he pockets it and turns towards the backpack. Unzipping it, he takes a look inside and finds some batteries, hopefully for the flashlight, as well as a yellow bucket hat. No food though.  
Frustrated, Wonwoo opens up all the other compartments, but besides a pencil and a few Won, there's nothing inside. Wonwoo runs his hand through his hair and tries to breathe calmly. He'd been hoping for some food, so so badly. Why is there no food, wherever he goes? He knows he can't survive off of crackers for the rest of his life.  
Why couldn't the person these things had belonged to leave some food for him? Damn it. Maybe the person isn't dead though, Wonwoo thinks, but immediately retracts that thought. Who in their right mind would leave their backpack in their shelter? Wonwoo carries that damned thing with him wherever he goes.

Wonwoo leaves the barricade and goes through all the aisles, finding a water bottle and some more batteries under one of the shelves that got turned over. He sees the restrooms once he's done searching, and supposes that it can't hurt to check those out, too.  
He finds some hand sanitizer in the Men's restrooms that he pockets, but other than that there's only some mice that quickly run away from him as soon as he enters. However, upon entering the Women's restrooms, Wonwoo's immediately hit with the smell of decaying flesh, and he quickly slaps a hand over his mouth upon seeing the sight that greets him.

Whatever questions he might have had about the person whose things where in the barricade are quickly dismissed. There's a woman hanging from the ceiling. Somehow, Wonwoo just immediately knows that this is the woman who built the barricade. Maybe it's in the way the rope around her neck is made in the same sloppy style as the barricade, or maybe he's just gotten good at guessing lately.

The woman appears to have been hanging there for a little while. The strong smell of decomposition fills Wonwoo's nostrils, even through his concealed nose, and the decaying processes are already well on their way. She's got no big flesh wounds, but it looks like some rats have found her a while back, because there's definitely bite marks on her bare feet, and ew, Wonwoo thinks he might throw up for real. Her clothes, ragged shorts and a loose shirt, are covered in dirt and other muck that he doesn't want to think about any further. She must've died when Summer was still in full swing.

He can't help but look up at her face, with Death's permanent features staring at him. He quickly decides not to look too long when he discovers that the rats have found her face, too. He also wonders why the woman chose to kill herself; if it was a spur-of-the-moment thing or if she'd planned it a long time ago. Was there a specific reason or did she just decide that a life like this hadn't been worth living anymore? Relatable, but Wonwoo also can't be bothered, so.

Walking backwards out of the bathroom, Wonwoo decides to not investigate the establishment further. The corpse makes him want to throw up, and it feels weird searching for loot when there's an actual dead person in the room with you. He still decides to walk back to the barricade and take the backpack, though. He could use another one of those; you can never go wrong with extra space. He still leaves Lotte Mart, though. He doesn't think he'll go back there again.

Trying to guess the approximate time by how high the sun is up in the sky, Wonwoo decides to check out at least one or two more stores before heading towards his base. There's a stationery store where he picks up a couple of new pens, because you can never have enough pens, and a Petsmart that he enters upon pondering if there might be any food _there_. Hell, he'd really go for some fish food at this point. His stomach feels like it's begun eating itself.

There are several broken glass tanks that used to inhabitat fishes of all sorts, if the descriptions in front of them are anything to go by, and as Wonwoo carefully steps over some glass shards on the floor, he even finds some crab corpses in a corner of one of the tanks. There's a few territatiums that various pets used to occupy once, where now only a few squeaky toys remain.  
Generally, like all the other stores, the Petsmart also seems to have been raided a few times already. Wonwoo has to step around multiple fallen shelves and items scattered across the floor before he makes it to the back of the store.

To his surprise, Wonwoo does actually find some animal food that's been left in the back of some shelves. He straight up passes by the cat and dog food, because those have an expiry date on them and he's pretty sure that date has passed. Also, gross. However, the dry fish food he finds in a container that hasn't been opened yet does not seem to have such a date on it, and shrugging, Wonwoo opens it and takes a handful. He's pretty sure he ate some fish food when he was a kid, and he still lives, so it honestly couldn't have been that bad. Right?  
His assumption proves to be correct. The fish food tastes like straight up cardboard, and probably has less nutritional value than the cat food, but again. Yikes. Wonwoo takes another mouthful and stuffs the container into his newly acquired backpack. At least it's something.

There's not that much in the Petsmart that's of use to Wonwoo, unless he's looking for an abundance of animal collars, but he does find a relatively tiny blanket in an otherwise empty box. Of course it's too small to cover his entire body, but who is he to complain about a free blanket? This raid might actually turn out to not be that bad after all. He takes out the fish food container again and eats some more. The more he eats of it, the less he hates it.

Wonwoo puts the container down on a table to roll up his sleeve and check his watch for the time, sighing when he remembers that it broke a while ago when he had a run-in with a pretty feisty Undead.Still, even without an exact time, Wonwoo decides to leave the mall before it gets too late. He leaves the Petsmart and turns towards the exit when the sound of multiple voices make him stop dead in his tracks.  
Carefully peeking around a corner, he discovers that a group of survivors has entered the mall. From a quick head count, Wonwoo guesses they're at least seven people, making a big ruckus and seemingly hard to miss. From what he can see from this far away, they all appear to be men, too.

Wonwoo retracts his head and leans against the wall behind the corner. Great. This is just what he needed right now. The group is way too big for him to simply make a run for it, the chances of them cornering him being way too high. Besides, Wonwoo has never been the fastest runner, and this does not seem like the time to put his abilities to the test. Just when Wonwoo wonders if they might all stay together and explore the mall as a team, allowing him to sneak past them once they're far away from his location, one of them shouts "Okay, so let's all split up and meet up again in about an hour! I want to see everyone having at least _some_ loot, do I make myself clear?". There's a collective affirmative mumble and then Wonwoo can hear the group separating and going into different directions. His plan waves him goodbye and dissolves into nothingness.  
Resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose and let out a big sigh, Wonwoo decides that he'll go back into Petsmart and hide until the group has left. It's too risky to try and sneak by the survivors when they're all split up throughout the mall, and Wonwoo's never been a fighter, preferring to avoid obstacles rather than face them head on. Besides, who would go into a Petsmart in the middle of an apocalypse when there's an abundance of other, better stores right in front of their nose?

Hiding behind a couple of shelves in the very far corner of the store, Wonwoo decides to open up his backpack and mull over the loot he has so far. He's pretty happy with the bullets, even though the gun belonging to them would have been even better, but these seem to be all-rounders, so he supposes they'll fit into any kind of 9mm gun. The second backpack has already proven to be incredibly useful because the blanket is currently stored in them, and the container with the fish food- wait, where is it? Wonwoo unzips the backpack fully and digs through it but cannot find it. What?! Where did he put it? He _needs_ that, even though it tastes like nothing. He must've left it somewhere in the store when he ate some of it.  
Wonwoo chucks his backpack away and leans towards the side, immediately seeing the food container on a counter in the middle of the store. He starts to stand up but halts when he hears footsteps that appear to be walking closer.

The footsteps come closer, now accompanied by quiet humming, and a man appears in the entrance of the store. He's tall, incredibly so, wearing a bomber jacket and some torn skinny jeans rolled up halfway to his knees along with biker boots, and what the hell, are those rainbow coloured socks?! The man also appears to be wearing knee pads, which like. Okay? Why? Wonwoo can't see the man's face, partially because the light shines from behind and partially because of the baseball cap the man is wearing.

The man looks around the store for a minute before fully entering and exploring. He doesn't seem to actually look for loot though, preferring to look into the tanks and terratiums and sighing occasionally before moving on to the next. He's almost gotten through them all when he discovers the food container on the counter, and with horror, Wonwoo watches the man pick up the container, open it and tuck it under his arm.

Wonwoo would not consider himself a possessive or materialistic man, but as he watches that man whistle to some unknown tune, carrying _his_ container, he starts to think that maybe he's been wrong all these years. That's his food and he _will_ fight for it, at whatever cost. Watching the man bend over another tank and examining it, he makes a rash decision. He doesn't even fully realise what he's doing until he's directly behind the man, gripping him by his jacket collar, yanking him up and holding a knife to his throat. To his surprise, the man doesn't scream but simply lets out a small whimper, going stiff under Wonwoo's harsh grip.

"What-" the man starts to say, but Wonwoo tightens his hold. "Shut up! Don't say anything." Swallowing heavily, the man nods, but keeps quiet. "You've got something that belongs to me, and I want it back." Wonwoo stresses his statement by pressing the knife into the man's throat just a little bit stronger, still not enough to draw blood but certainly noticeable.  
"I don't know wh-" ""Of course you do, don't play dumb!" Wonwoo's growing agitated. He just wants his fish food back from the dumb man. "Give it back!"

The guy tries to turn his head, but is stopped by Wonwoo tightening his grip even further. "Okay, okay, I get it!" he exclaims, "I won't move!" "Good," Wonwoo bites back, "now give me back what was never yours to take."  
"Are you talking about the twix bar I found this morning? Because I've got some very bad news for you, buddy," the man replies, grinning sheepishly. How he manages to look that relaxed while someone is _literally_ holding a knife to his throat, Wonwoo does not know. "What? Of course I'm not-" Wonwoo rolls his eyes. "I'm talking about the food container that you're holding right now, not about some stupid twix bar!"

"Oh," the man answers, looking down at the container. "Is this yours? I didn't know that, it was just sitting there on the counter, so I thought-" "Well you thought wrong! It's mine and I want it back." This other human is slowly draining his patience and Wonwoo kind of regrets not immediately stabbing him. Maybe just a little. "Why do you need fish food, though?" the man wonders. "Do you have fish? Can I see them? I love fish!"

Taking a deep breath, Wonwoo says "No, of course I don't have fish. That's for me. Now. Give. It. Back." This time, when he presses the knife in a little further, he pierces the skin and a bit of blood oozes out of the wound. The man winces under him. "Ow! That hurts, you asshole!" Nevertheless, he lets go of the container and it drops down on the floor. Thankfully, the lid doesn't bust open. Wonwoo thinks he might actually had screamed if that had happened. "What are you even doing here?" he inquires.

"I- uh..." the man stammers, "I was, uhm, searching for animals, actually." And okay, what? "What?" Wonwoo thinks he might have misheard. "Aren't you with that big group that was making noise not too long ago?" The man shrugs a little, still limited in his movements by Wonwoo's grip. "I mean, yes, and technically I know that I'm supposed to be searching for actual loot, but uh-," he stops just a fraction of a second before continuing, "Before, y'know, all of _this_ , I used to work at a Petsmart, and I just wanted to check if maybe there were any animals left here that hadn't managed to escape." The sole fact that the man thinks the animals who are missing have _escaped_ instead of having found their untimely death as human food makes Wonwoo wonder about what kind of mindset this person has. Surely he cannot be serious. "Are you for real?"

Fiddling with a ring on his finger, the man shrugs again. "I mean, yes. You never know, I guess? I was actually hoping that maybe there was a pet here that I could, uh, take with me." "You mean as food?" Wonwoo asks, but immediately knows he's very wrong with that statement. "What?! No, of course not!" the man yells, face colouring red with anger. "I could NEVER. That's disgusting, how could you even _think_ of that? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

Rolling his eyes, Wonwoo replies "Oh my god dude, chill. I'm a vegetarian. Forget I even asked." Deciding that the man is as harmless as they come, Wonwoo lets him go but keeps the knife in his hand. "So you were gonna... eat the fish food?" the man asks, watching as Wonwoo picks up the container and tucks it against his chest. "So what about it?" Wonwoo replies, deciding that the dude sucks after all. "Rough times, buddy. We all gotta survive somehow." He doesn't talk about the fact that he literally only started eating fish food about two hours ago, and had only started thinking of fish food as something desirable this very morning.

"I mean, I guess," the man says, shrugging his shoulders once again, "How does it taste though?" "Like cardboard," Wonwoo answers, and to his credit, the man does not immediately burst out laughing, although Wonwoo can see him trying to bite back a smile. "By the way, you can leave now," Wonwoo says, pointing towards the door of the store. "Tell anyone about me and I will _not_ hesitate to throw this knife at you." Swallowing heavily, the guy starts with "But-" yet Wonwoo doesn't let him continue. "I don't care. Leave. Don't try to take any more of my stuff. In fact, don't come back at all. Have a nice apocalypse and all. Don't let the bed bugs bite." He even makes a dismissive gesture with his hands. "Now shoo. Go back to your group; no pets here, so go look somewhere else. Bye!" He backs off into the corner of the store again, still staring at the man, who appears to be frozen, only his eyes moving as they follow Wonwoo's movements.

"But-," he tries again, and Wonwoo interferes again. "I said bye!" This time, the guy seems to get the message and slowly walks to the entrance, throwing one last long look over his shoulder, and then he's gone.  
Wonwoo sighs in relief. That could've gone so much worse. It was his first human interaction in a long time, not counting the dead woman in the Lotte Mall bathroom, and nobody died so he counts that as a win.

Wonwoo packs his food container inside of one of the backpacks, straps both of them on and decides that _now_ is a good time to leave. The whole interaction with the guy must have cost him at least half an hour if not more, and Wonwoo doesn't trust him not to go running towards the other survivors and tell them about him. He'd rather make a quiet exit now than be forced to hide somewhere in this mall until the next dawn. Besides, he doesn't think it's safe to spend the night here, and he doesn't even know about any good hiding places up high, so no. He's making the decision to leave, effective immediately.

He leaves the store quietly and stops at the entrance, listening to any sounds coming from outside. Luckily, he hears nothing, so either the group of survivors must have left already or they are in another part of the mall. Either way, Wonwoo is glad. Still, he decides to take a different route out of the mall than the one he took inside, because even if that adds another half an hour to his walk home, he can't be sure that nobody saw him coming in a few hours ago, so he'd rather be safe than sorry.

Wonwoo's making his way out, thinking about the possible different ways of preparing fish food as a meal, when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and the sound of feet running towards him, then a "Hey!" being shouted.  
Quicker than he thought was possible, Wonwoo's whipping around, knife already in hand. He comes face to face with the man from before, halting in front of him, shocked eyes falling upon the knife in Wonwoo's hand. "Woah dude, what-"

"What do you want?" Wonwoo interrupts him. "Why are you here?" Raising his hands defensively, the guy answers "Hey c'mon, chill out-" "I said," Wonwoo spits out, "What the FUCK do you want?!"

Swallowing once, the man looks at Wonwoo's knife once again before meeting his eyes. "It's about my group." "What about it?" Wonwoo answers, now a little bit confused. "They- they're gone."

"So?" Wonwoo questions, "What do I have to do with that?" "No, you don't understand! They've disappeared; they've left without me!" Wonwoo resists the urge to roll his eyes. "And when did I say I care about that?" The guy looks at him for a second, clearly shocked. "But- but what am I gonna do now? They've left me all on my own, and I don't get why and I also don't know what to do now?!"  
Shrugging his shoulders, Wonwoo steps back a bit. "I don't know, maybe you were a burden or something, or they just got sick of you. But, as I said, I don't care and I also don't get why you're now here, bothering me once again." The guy flinches a bit. Hm, Wonwoo must've struck a nerve there.  
"I honestly couldn't care less what you do now. Just leave me alone and like, find another group or something." Wonwoo answers, backing off a few more steps, gaze locked on the other man.

"Can't I come-" "No," Wonwoo immediately interrupts the guy before he even finishes his question. "But you didn't even let me finish!", the guy says, pouting. "I could be a useful asset to your team!"  
From what Wonwoo has seen so far, he rather doubts that. The guy was trying to find a pet in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, for fuck's sake. "I already know what you're gonna ask, and no, I'm not gonna let you join me. I'm alone, and I'd rather like it to stay that way, so thanks but no thanks." Wonwoo responds. He takes another couple of steps back, and the guy's eyes follow him, yet he stays put. Good for him.

"I'm gonna leave now before it gets dark, and I'd advise you to do the same because according to what I've heard, this place is _littered_ with Undead at night," Wonwoo says, distancing himself further. He's almost at the exit now. "Take this as a courtesy before I take my leave, because surely you'll die if you stay here. Unless that's what you want, in which case: go ahead and place yourself right in the middle of the bottom floor, because that's where they tend to crowd a lot. Take care, and see you never!"  
And with that, Wonwoo slips out of an open door and into the sunlight. He can hear the guy shouting faintly about morals and how Wonwoo's a bad person, but with each step he takes, the shouting gets quieter until it's just him and his thoughts again, making his way outside of the city and to his base. He needs to hurry a bit if he wants to catch the last bit of sunlight while gazing out of his base.

Of course Wonwoo's a bad person. He's never considered himself to be a necessarily good person, always too rational and distant about things that required emotional sensitivity. It's a bad thing to leave someone else helpless in an abandoned shopping center in the middle of an apocalypse, that much even he knows. But also, what else was he supposed to do? Wonwoo can't just take the guy with him, he doesn't even know his name. For all he knows, the guy could be a potentional serial killer, having already killed dozens of people, having marked Wonwoo as his next target.  
Wonwoo quietly snorts when he remembers the guy searching for _animals_ in Petsmart. It's highly unlikely a serial killer would search for a _pet_. The guy's probably as harmless as a fly. Wonwoo wonders how he has managed to stay alive all these months, because the guy really is anything but intimidating. Maybe his group had taken pity on him and had kept him along, although that doesn't explain why they had left him now, of all the days they could have chosen to abandon him. Also, why just leave the guy on his own indead of killing him instantly, thus putting him out of the misery of finding death amongst the Undead that will surely seek him out?

Wonwoo's almost out of the city, only a few streets away from the countryside where his base is, when he hears it. Quiet footsteps, following him and trying to match his pace. When he stops and turns around, he's met with the empty street he's just walked on, no signs of life anywhere.  
But Wonwoo's not stupid, and he's not going crazy, either. He knows what he heard. He knows there was something there. _Someone_. He glances forward again, gaze falling upon the next corner, where he needs to make a turn anyways, and a plan forms in his head. Just to see if his suspicions are right.

Wonwoo continues walking towards the corner, and shortly after the footsteps pick up again, this time it sounds like they're further away, though. Then, the person following him knocks over something that falls to the ground with a loud clatter. Wonwoo turns around again and finds a trash can on its side in the middle of the street, lid rolling down the street and passing by Wonwoo on its way. Wonwoo simply raises an eyebrow and continues walking. He's almost positive he knows what's going on.

Wonwoo turns around the corner, quickly hiding behind a big metal dumpster and waits. Surely, not even fifteen seconds later, the guy from the mall also turns around the corner, eyes falling upon the empty street he's met with.  
The guy runs a hand through his hair, getting visibly distressed. "No, no, no... it can't be..." he says, turning around on the spot a few times, clearly looking for Wonwoo. Meanwhile, Wonwoo pinches the bridge of his nose. Why do things like this always happen to him?

"I can't have lost him, he was here just a few seconds ago," the man mumbles, wiping away the sweat on his brow. "Where did he go? Oh no, why are you so stupid? You should've followed him closer!" He runs both of his hands through his hair this time, stopping to pull at it. "Fuck!", the guy exclaims. He glances backwards once, then forward. "He must be here somewhere, maybe he's just a really fast walker..." the man murmurs, turning around again and walking back in the direction he just came from.

Wonwoo's not sure what drives him to do what he does next, but he makes sure to have a talk with his impulse control later. Standing up and walking back on the street, he shouts "Looking for something?"  
Immediately, the man whips around, shocked gaze falling on Wonwoo. "I- I- where-, how did you-" "You know," Wonwoo interrupts him, "You're not exactly being discreet when I can hear your footsteps 50 feet away." The guy has the decency to blush at that. "Also, you knocked over a trash can. I'd have needed to be _deaf_ to not have heard that," Wonwoo continues.

The guy only blushes harder, scratching at his neck, clearly embarrassed. "That- that wasn't supposed to happen, you know. I just didn't see it and then I had already knocked it over."  
"Oh, so you feel guilty for knocking over the trash can but not for following me in the first place?" Wonwoo asks, crossing his arms. Wonwoo hadn't thought it would be possible for the guy to blush even more, but there he goes.

"I- um... I can explain," the guy replies, kneading his hands together. Wonwoo simply raises an eyebrow. "I just- I didn't know what to do when you left me in the mall-" "So you thought that _clearly_ the right thing to do in this situation was to follow me secretly? What were you even gonna achieve with that?" Wonwoo furrows his eyebrows.  
"Well, you just left me there, does _that_ sound like the right thing to do to you in this situation? Because it's not, dude, it's fucked up," the guy answers, now crossing his arms as well. Wonwoo scoffs. Trust this guy to lecture him on morals.

"Well, I said it once and I'll say it again: I _still_ don't care what you do, as long as you do it away from me. I don't feel any sense of responsibility towards you, so why don't you just fuck off and let me do my thing?" Wonwoo spits out. The guy flinches again, and oh no, are those tears forming in his eyes?  
"But I'm gonna die," the guy says, sniffing once. "I don't know how to survive on my own; I've only ever been with groups and I just-" He stops, looking down at the ground and shrinking in on himself. "I just don't wanna die," he whispers quietly, so quietly that Wonwoo would have missed it had he not paid attention.

The guy's full on crying now; Wonwoo can see the droplets falling on the ground, dampening the street they're standing on. Wonwoo resists the urge to roll his eyes, because he's a grown man and he's gonna handle this like an adult.

"The fuck, dude?" Well okay, not _exactly_ what he had meant to say. The man looks up again, and yikes. There's tears all over. "I don't wanna die either, but do you see me having a full crying fit over it?" Wonwoo asks. He doesn't really expect an answer, and the guy just sniffles more, so he supposes he's not getting any more than that.  
"Why don't you just find another group, instead of following me?" Wonwoo asks him.

"I-" the guy wipes his eyes on his bomber jacket, "I don't know how to approach people," he finally says. Wonwoo _does_ roll his eyes at that. "Well, you've done a great job at approaching me. Here's a tip though: Maybe next time that you're trying to approach someone, don't follow them sneakily; that's fucking creepy."

"Sorry," the man apologises at that, and Wonwoo can already see the tears resurfacing. "Oh goodness, don't cry. The fuck. Just go and find someone before night settles in. You're as good as dead if you're still out here by then." Wonwoo quickly glances up at the sky, noting how much the sun has already gone down. _So much for his quiet evening, gazing out of his base._ "That reminds me, I _really_ gotta get going. Bye!"

He's already a few feet away when the guy runs after him, placing himself in front of Wonwoo, thus making him stop dead in his tracks. "What do you _want_? I already said I don't want to keep you around. In my opinion, I'm safer on my own," Wonwoo points back at the flipped trash can, "And you haven't made a good job at convincing me that you'd be a good partner."  
Frowning, the guy takes a step back. He's still crying. "B-But see, that's exactly why I don't want to be alone," he replies, voice wavering, "I'm never gonna make it on my own."

Pinching the bridge of his nose again, Wonwoo sighs heavily. "Again. I. Don't. Care." "Just-" the guy's full on pleading now, "Just let me come with you for tonight, and I'll be out of your hair tomorrow morning! I need a place to spend the night."  
Wonwoo sighs again. He can already _feel_ a headache forming. "And why would I do that? How would that benefit me?"

The guy pauses, thinking. He then takes off his backpack, unzips it and pulls out- _a twix bar._ Wonwoo thinks he might already be dead. There's _no way-_ "You can have this twix bar," the guy says, strapping his backpack on again. "I only took one bite out of it, so technically it's almost a whole twix bar."  
Just thinking about the twix bar has Wonwoo's mouth producing saliva at an alarming rate. "I-,"he pauses to swallow, gaze fixed on the bar in the man's outstretched hand, "how- how old is this?" The guy shrugs. "I only opened it this morning, and it's been wrapped up the entire time. I didn't poison it or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

Wonwoo swallows again. _Fuck._ He's always had a weakness for candy bars. "Wait," he looks up at the guy's face again. "What makes you think I'm _that_ desperate for food that I would eat a half-eaten twix bar?"  
The man raises his other hand, pointer finger up. "Well for one, there's only one bite missing, so you can't call it a half-eaten twix bar, and two," he raises his middle finger up as well, "I clearly remember you pointing a knife at me just a short while ago because I was stealing your fish food. Fish food that you were gonna eat _yourself_. So," he grins at Wonwoo, "I _do_ think you're _that_ desperate for food."

Well, the guy's got a point. Wonwoo frowns, then rips the twix bar out of the guy's hand. "You're leaving in the morning." He starts walking down the street that goes out of the city. "No sleeping in until noon."  
It takes him a full minute to work out that he's unaccompanied. Wonwoo turns around and finds the guy still frozen on the spot, staring at his now empty hand. "You coming or what?" Wonwoo yells. The guy shakes his head quickly, then runs up to Wonwoo. Wonwoo can hear him mumbling "Can't believe that worked" under his breath, and he's about to tell this guy to fuck right off when he remembers the twix bar in his hand, so he stays still.

They walk for a while, leaving the city behind them, when Wonwoo has had enough of waiting and tears the wrapper open. The guy's true to his word, there really is only one bite missing. Wonwoo takes a sniff and almost moans. _Goodness,_ it smells so good, Wonwoo thinks he's about to faint. He takes a bite and this time, he really does moan. _Fuck._ It's better than anything Wonwoo has eaten in days, even weeks. The way the caramel sticks to his teeth, the chocolate melting on his tongue- Wonwoo really must be in heaven.

Upon hearing a cough next to him, Wonwoo opens his eyes, not even having realised that he had closed them. He turns his head to face the guy next to him, a faint blush coating the latter's cheeks, staring at Wonwoo. Wonwoo simply raises his eyebrows. "Fish food, remember?"  
The man coughs again, eyes leaving Wonwoo and turning towards the road. "Yeah, yeah, of course," he laughs awkwardly, "I just didn't think you were actually _that_ desperate."

Wonwoo just shrugs. He's been hungry for so long, he really has no shame about this anymore. He just says "Haven't had anything good to eat in a while."  
"By the way, what's your name?" the guy asks, head turning towards Wonwoo once again. Wonwoo pauses for a second, thinking, then decides to tell the guy. It's not like they'll stumble upon any scientific documents from Seoul Research Center here, in the middle of nowhere. "Jeon Wonwoo," he replies.

They're quiet for another while before Wonwoo notes something. "What's your name?" Wonwoo asks, belatedly realising that he still doesn't know. "Mingyu," comes the answer. "Kim Mingyu."

 

**Author's Note:**

> talk to me on twt @voregyu


End file.
